Exposition and Protest, Reported by the Special Committee of the House of Representatives, on the Tariff, 19 December 1828

Document Description:

In 1828, a tariff to raise the price of manufactured American goods was passed by Congress. This tariff helped the manufacturers of the North, but hurt the South, who did not produce a lot of their own goods. British manufacturers were also injured by the tariff, thus making it difficult to pay for the southern cotton they usually imported. John C. Calhoun anonymously authored the Exposition and Protest and gave it to the House Committee, which declared the tariff unconstitutional and authorized individual states to nullify the bill within their own borders. Although the House did not adopt the Exposition and Protest, copies were printed and distributed throughout the state. The portion presented here is the Protest, which outlines the argument against the tariff in eight points:

Congress cannot extend its constitutional authority;

Congress cannot enact tariffs that are not justified by public necessity

The tariff is therefore unconstitutional

The tariff to protect domestic manufacture goes against a “simple, consolidated government”

The tariff actually was not enacted to regulate commerce, a Constitutional power of Congress, but to prohibit foreign trade

The power to protect manufacture is not a Constitutional power

Even if the tariff does regulate commerce, as it is too oppressive, it is an abuse of power

Due to South Carolina’s dependence on foreign trade, the state will be affected so severely by the tariff that the state would be destroyed.

Citation:

Exposition and Protest, Reported by the Special Committee of the House of Representatives, on the Tariff, Read and Ordered to be Printed, Dec. 19th 1828. Columbia, D.W.Sims, 1829. Books Division, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina.

Correlating SC Social Studies Academic Standards:

Standard 3-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the events that led to the Civil War, the course of the War and Reconstruction, and South Carolina’s role in these events.

Indicator 3-4.3 Explain the reasons for South Carolina’s secession from the Union, including the abolitionist movement, states’ rights, and the desire to defend South Carolina’s way of life. (H,P,E)

Standard 4-6: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the Civil War and its impact on America.

Indicator 4-6.1 Compare the industrial North and the agricultural South prior to the Civil War, including the specific nature of the economy of each region, the geographic characteristics and boundaries of each region, and the basic way of life in each region. (G , E, H)

Standard 8-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the American Civil War—its causes and effects and the major events that occurred during that time.

Indicator 8-3.1 Explain the importance of agriculture in antebellum South Carolina, including plantation life, slavery, and the impact of the cotton gin. (H, G, E)

Indicator 8-3.2 Explain the impact of key events leading to South Carolina’s secession from the Union, including the nullification crisis and John C. Calhoun, the Missouri Compromise, the Tariff of 1832, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act and subsequent armed conflict, the Dred Scott decision, the growth of the abolitionist movement, and the election of 1860. (H, P, G)

Standard USHC-3: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the westward movement and the resulting regional conflicts that took place in America in the nineteenth century.

Indicator USHC-3.3 Compare economic development in different regions of the country during the early nineteenth century, including agriculture in the South, industry and finance in the North, and the development of new resources in the West. (E, H, G)

Standard USHC-4: The student will demonstrate an understanding of the causes and the course of the Civil War and Reconstruction in America.

Indicator USHC-4.2 Explain how the political events and issues that divided the nation led to civil war, including the compromises reached to maintain the balance of free and slave states, the successes and failures of the abolitionist movement, the conflicting views on states’ rights and federal authority, the emergence of the Republican Party and its win in 1860, and the formation of the Confederate States of America. (H, P)